I am moving house at the end of February and need to cancel my BT Total Broadband service and BT land line. I am on an 18 month contract with 14 months left to run, so I understand as per their terms and conditions there will be a charge for ending the contract early.

I was advised by BT home moving services, that as I was moving in with my parents, who already have an existing BT landline but no broadband with BT, I would be able to transfer the remainder of my 14 month phone and broadband package to their address and not have to pay a cancellation fee.

My parents would take over the remainder of my contract at their address. My parents are not under any contract terms with BT, they simply pay line rental. So all that would happen is my parents would now have BT total broadband supplied via their existing BT landline and they would continue to pay BT line rental, simple?? NO!! BT Customer Services advised me that during the transfer of my package to parents address, a new telephone number would be assigned to my parents. This is not what they want, they just want to add broadband and BT said we could transfer my contract over. Simply to add BT broadband at their address.

They do not want or require a NEW BT landline number, they have a BT land line number already. For a start my Step dad works from home and cannot spend weeks chasing everyone up telling them of his new number, secondly they don't want to run the risk of being allocated an 'old' number that might have been some 24 hour mini cab firm etc. So because BT cannot guarantee my parents would be able to keep their existing land line number, my folks are having to sign up for BT broadband as new customers and I cannot transfer my existing 14 month broadband and phone package to their address and must now pay a £196 early cancellation fee.

As I plan on only staying at my parents for a few months installing a second line was not an option either.

Totally incompetent service from BT. The reason given to me was that BT and Openreach are two different organisations and as part of the transfer process of a package to another address a new phone number is always assigned by Openreach. Why can they simply not just assign the BT number that is ALREADY IN USE at my parents address to the new package?

All BT had to do was ensure my parents could keep their old BT landline number. So now BT are going to get more bad press as I now blog all about them. What happened to common sense? I feel BT.com and BT Openreach need a lesson in customer service and efficiency.

You seem to be caught in a bit of a trap. BT do not allow customers to transfer their contracts to other people - I'm not surprised at this, as it would allow anybody to get out of long contracts by passing them on to somebody else. BT also do not allow customers to transfer their numbers to other customers (it specifically says so in their terms and conditions).

When push comes to shove, you signed up to an 18 month contract and now want to cancel it, or transfer the liability to someone else (which BT won't accept).

Edit: You might be in a position to take advantage of clause 50 of BT's terms and conditions:-

"If we make a change to the price or the terms and conditions of a service which is to your material disadvantage, you will not have to pay a charge if you decide to end that service early, unless the Tariff Guide says otherwise. However, once we have told you about such a change, you must let us know that you want to end that service within 10 days. This agreement will continue to apply to any other services that are not affected by any changes that we make."

BT have just announced a price rise. Did you receive notification within the last 10 days?

Re: BT Cancellation Charge and Idiotic Policy

"BT also do not allow customers to transfer their numbers to other customers (it specifically says so in their terms and conditions)."

So I am left with a bill for £196. I know BT will transfer business numbers to other addresses. It's just the domestic little guy that gets shafted.

£196 might not seem much to them but it's more than I have. I run my own online business and will make sure this terrible policy is not left unheard. Well done BT, another thoroughly dejected customer.

Re: BT Cancellation Charge and Idiotic Policy

Still no repsonse from BT as to why I have to have a new BT landline number at my new house i'm moving to. Am moving in with family but am transfering my contract to the new address. My family want to keep their existing BT land line number, yet BT insist that if I transfer my contract to that address a new number has to be allocated.

Madness, which is going to cost me £196 in cancellation fee. BT customer care? Don't think so. Inefficient business plan that will cost them jobs in the long run!

Re: BT Cancellation Charge and Idiotic Policy

My edit about clause 50 is that you can avoid the cancellation charge. You should receive a notice from BT detailing the price rise. You could then contact them to cancel your contract at no charge.

You could then get your parents to add broadband to their package. This would not be ideal - you would probably lose your current BT email address (though you might be able to get it back again), but you would not have to pay any charges.

Be creative, see if there's a way to work around BT's system to get what you want without paying extra for it.

HA HA, you make me laugh BT you really do. I'm closing my account on Monday, you know I'm doing that! Give up, i'm off never to return. Seriously BT you really do need to get your departments to talk to each other. You know, left hand right hand.

As a BT Total Broadband Option 2 customer, you'll be pleased to know we've doubled your monthly broadband allowance from 20GB to 40GB.

So you can now download twice as many movies, songs, photos and emails.